Umbrella of Love
by ShiverIntheLight
Summary: Link and I… We feel nothing for each other…but then why does my heart cry out as I see him walk the Brawl Mansion alone…without a woman beside him? Why does my soul cry foul when I deny any ambiguous feeling inside me? He is the only one who tenderly holds my battered heart…and makes me feel intrepid and safe… He is the only man I shall ever love…


Zelda/Link Oneshot

**Disclaimer: I don't own Link, Zelda, or any Brawl characters mentioned. On with the story!**

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Umbrella of Love

Zelda walked out of the nearest deli, a small bag of groceries in her hand. Inside the bag were treats that she, Peach, and Samus would munch on when they watched The Dark Knight Rises later that night.

But deep inside Zelda…there was a certain heaviness; it clung to her heart and ravaged it every day that it existed. It prevented her from truly feeling the smile the was plastered onto her face every day to hide her true feelings.

She continued to walk down the sidewalk slowly, not in any rush, lost into thoughts. The trees whispered as the wind snaked through them and leaves swirled down from the branches, their colors signifying that autumn was in full swing. A leaf fell onto Zelda's hair, feeling heavy.

Zelda was only able to describe the heaviness in her to be sadness, the one true emotion that struck her heart ever since Link saved her… Zelda began to remember the first time that Link saved her from the clutches of Ganon. She remembered how heroic and confident he was as he slew Ganon and took her back to her royal family.

"Link…" Zelda trailed off as emotion clogged her throat, preventing her from finishing her sentence.

_ Our friendship is only mutual… There is nothing between us… but yet there is…_ Zelda thought. _We can…never be together because… Because…of who we are… _

Zelda felt the sadness burst inside her, as if it had been waiting for this moment in all of its entire lifespan. It had assailed her, mocked her, waiting for when the first tear would fall. Zelda had been strong this whole time…but now…times had changed… The emotion in her was just way too much in number to hold back anymore.

Zelda's vision began to waver and become blurry, but she still kept on walking, refusing to stop and wail…refusing to let the sadness win in this battle for emotion control.

_Link and I… We feel nothing for each other…but then why does my heart cry out as I see him walk the Brawl Mansion alone…without a woman beside him? Why does my soul cry foul when I deny any ambiguous feeling inside me? It is all because of my royal blood…the racist way I had been raised up…_

_ "You will marry a lovely man. He will be there to guide you and love you as you become the queen of Hyrule." her father, King Harkinian, said as he came to visit Zelda one day in her room. "He will be of royalty, the one person who will help bolster this country and be a just king for Hyrule."_

_ My father was wrong…the man who is there to guide me and possibly love me is Link. He is not of royalty…but I don't care… I love Link… He is the only one who tenderly holds my battered heart…and makes me feel intrepid and safe… He is the only man I shall ever love… and the only man that I can ever see myself with… But we… we can't do anything about being together…_

Zelda felt the first tear slip out of her eye and felt it run its slow wet course down her cheek before falling to the floor below. The sadness began to grip her in its wake and it made more tears fall; the elegiac, familiar emotion ripping her heart away into tatters.

_Why must I be so demure and prudish while Link is free of worries? Why must I be of royal heritage which prevents me from being with him eternally?_

Zelda wouldn't let her feelings go…she refused to let loose and collapse right then and there on the sidewalk. It had begun to rain, a slight drizzle at first, and as Zelda walked on and on slowly the rain soon mixed with her tears…encouraging more to come out and take the place of the ones that slipped down her cheeks.

_I love everything about Link, the sagacious look of bliss in his beautiful dusky eyes as he laughs. The look of freedom and casualness that seeps from his being…the way he teases me and laughs at my poor jokes… The way he understands me when words are not said between us…_

To Zelda love was painful to bear and so fleeting in nature. Link was and still is her first love…something that she had always cherished. She knew she and Link had a bond that stretched beyond their understanding of the gravity of fate. However this love that she harbored for Link…it grew day by day as she and Link became older, him becoming more masculine and alluring to the eye, and her becoming more depressed as she noticed these little details.

_Does love mean to punish me with its abhorrence? To knock me down and augment the pain inside my heart? _

Zelda suddenly stopped walking, the grocery bag dropping out of her hand to the ground. The light weight of the bag disappearing, but it unlocked and broke something inside her. The sadness in her soon become belligerent; the tears leaking from her eyes augmented as well and her legs began to quiver with the oppressive feelings. The rain drenched her, made the water travel from her hair and skin to drop below, but she didn't care…she felt nothing now except for the sorrow of this unrequited love that captured her mind and incapacitated it.

"Link…must it be this way between us?… I can't…go on in life…without you." Zelda murmured tearfully, her breathing becoming frenetic with the apex of her grief and sorrow. The leaves falling from the trees began to swirl in the now unforgiving wind, lashing against her with its present of stoic raindrops.

_Link causes fervid emotions inside me…he makes me come alive…he makes me feel as though life truly is worth living…_ Zelda thought as a small soft sob finally escaped her throat to pilfer the silent air. Her tears fell and fell, compelling the feelings that Zelda had shoved away into the recess of her selfand heart for many years to become finally known.

_ The pain…I can't take it anymore…to live life without being with Link…_

Zelda was ready to crumple to the floor and let the weather elements slice into her and destroy her composure. Just as she was ready to fall the rain suddenly stopped and an umbrella was above her. She looked to see that it was Link holding the umbrella, a gleeful and playful smirk on his face and in his jocular blue eyes.

"Zelda! You should have brought an umbrella, you silly woman. I saw you walking from the window and just hurried out to help you. You should have known that Lucario's little weather predicting abilities are…" Link's sentence trailed away when he saw the pain and inner tumult in Zelda's face and eyes.

Then Link embraced her, his strong arms wrapping around Zelda's waist and bringing her close to him. Zelda felt his body against hers and then all her emotion came out. She sobbed and nuzzled into Link's neck, trying to derive comfort from his warm body and scent.

"Zelda? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Link asked softly, but Zelda refused to respond, her body shaking with the tension of sorrow and pain.

"Zelda look, you can tell me anything, you know that. You know that I am here for you and care about your feelings. Please tell me what is making you react in this way." Link continued, his voice getting subdued as he pleaded her to spill.

"I hate all of this…how you and I…" Zelda's sentence trailed off as another sob took her and she clutched Link even more fiercely, her body moving with the jerky motions of her breathing. Link rubbed his hand comfortingly on her back, trying to soothe her and stop her sadness.

"Link…I…every day that I watch you walk the mansion alone…without another woman beside you…it…it breaks me… The benevolent feelings that we share…it causes me pain…because we can't be together…due to our bloodlines." Zelda finally continued through her small sobs and Link suddenly knew. He drew Zelda back and saw the forlorn look in her eyes; the mass of sadness that raced down her face in the form of simple tears. He wiped her tears with a soft thumb and cupped Zelda's cheek.

"Zelda…we do not live in Hyrule anymore. Bloodlines should not prevent us from being together… There is no royal family that is ready to imprison me because I'm with you. In this Brawl Mansion it is just you and me, and that is all that it should be." Link replied with a small shake of his head. Zelda looked away from him, feeling guilty that she had released all her emotions in front of her closest friend and hero. Link cupped her cheek and she looked up at him, seeing understanding in his beautiful eyes.

"Remember Zelda we are free from who we are in this place; you are free from your heritage and I am free of my commoner life as well." Link continued, then he leaned in and kissed Zelda's lips softly. Zelda reciprocated the gesture and kissed him deeply, all her sadness and pain melding together but slowly becoming extenuated.

"Oh Link." Zelda murmured as they drew back from the kiss, their foreheads touching as they caught their breaths. They kissed once more, feelings of fervid want spiraling in them both and Link felt his arms draw Zelda close to his body, binding her to him. Zelda's arms went around his neck and she squirmed as Link upped the heat of the kiss.

Zelda was gasping as they finally drew away and Link looked into her eyes, the ones that he felt should not have ever experienced what sadness was.

"Zelda, I have loved you from the start. You enraptured me…from the first time I saved you from Ganon. Your sweet, caring, and generous attitude only made me love you all the more. It galvanized me to come save you each and every time Ganon decided to capture you." Link murmured and drew his fingers softly down Zelda's face, caressing her cheek before cupping it gently.

That's when Zelda knew, that the feelings inside her were crying to be let loose and told. To be gratuitous from the claim that the sadness held over them.

"Link…I have loved you from the start as well…you captured my heart since the day you slew Ganon the first time and had all the courage of a warrior in you. You are the only man I have ever and will ever love, Link. The only man who knows me best." Zelda replied and her heart began to sing with the jovial notion that the love has finally been accepted.

They began to kiss again as the rain fell away around them, the umbrella of love creating a barrier between them, strengthening them in heart and soul. Zelda drew back from Link and looked into his eyes, seeing lifetime of love, affection, and even desire in their blue depths.

"It will be a new beginning between us Zelda. Nothing can hold me from loving you, and nothing can hold you back from loving me either. You are impeccable to me Zelda, the only woman that reigns as queen in my heart. Let us start over, and become the people that fate and destiny wanted us to be from the start." Link said and Zelda gave a nod.

"Love is ephemeral, Link, but let's try and make it perennial and forever." Zelda murmured and Link gave a nod as he leaned to take her lips once again.

"You and I…together we are entwined. Never shall I leave your side, even in death. And in the next life I shall seek you out again and we will continue to love one another forever." Link whispered against her lips after the passionate kiss, the love, conviction and affection in his voice healing Zelda, making all the ignoble, imperious feelings of doleful sadness fade away.

"Yes Link…I want to be with you for centuries to come. I know that life doesn't last long, but I know together our hearts beat as one." Zelda replied softly and as they kissed once more the rain let up its repugnance and stoicism and the benign sun came out, lifting the solid wall of melancholy that was in the air as the wind died down and the warmth of love, reparation, and completion replaced it.

As Link and Zelda looked deeply into each others' eyes they knew that life still brought that one true gift that changes all. The gift that only a soulmate can give, making the gravity of love's pull become fierce and full of meaning.

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**A/N: Thank you to Sippurp123 for giving me the inspiration to make this Zelda/Link oneshot. I hope you readers like this oneshot. :D**


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